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Topic: Initially, it's the March 21 crossword (Read 754 times)

Today's crossword by Kevin Christian -- note his initials -- includes five two-word answers with the initials KC. I doubt that a crossword creator named Quentin Xerxes or Jeremiah Zander would be able to do something similar.

"Strikeout victim of poetry, and a phonetic hint" to those answers is CASEY. Ernest Thayer's poem was first published in the San Francisco Examiner and was often recited by vaudeville performers on stage. The full title is Casey At The Bat: A Ballad Of The Republic Sung In The Year 1888. With two outs in the final inning, two runners on base and the Mudville team down by two runs, Casey had a chance to tie the game or win the game.....but he was over-confident and struck out. Thayer said he used the name "Casey" because he had an Irish friend with that name but many historians believe the character was based on baseball player Michael "King" Kelly. Here is the poem:

The word meaning "diagonally across from each other" has several variations: kitty-korner, catty-corner, kitty-cornered and catty-cornered -- but the original word was "cater-cornered." Its first known use was in 1848 and it derived from the now-obsolete "cater", meaning "four," from the Middle French quatre and the Latin quattuor.

"Here, in Haiti" is ICI, which is not used in English. "Bogotá boy" is NINO -- but that is wrong. The word is "Niño." "Thumbs-down vote" is NAY. "Yea" is an archaic word meaning "yes." "Nay" is an archaic word meaning "no." In the United States Senate, the House of Representatives and most state and city legislatures, oral votes are taken on bills and proposals. Each member says either "Yea" or "Nay." But why, other than long-standing tradition, do our legislators continue to use those archaic words? I think they should say "Yes" or "No" like everyone else does. Yea, I really think so.